Large diameter food casings are used by food processors for stuffing large diameter sausages such as bolognas or the like and for stuffing large muscle groups. The principal commercial large muscle group which is stuffed is boned hams.
Large diameter food casings used for stuffing are generally made of regenerated cellulose with a fibrous reinforcing web embedded in the wall of the casing. The casing (hereinafter "fibrous casing") is moisturized by the casing manufacturer to provide the extensibility required for stuffing. In one stuffing method, the fibrous casing used for stuffing large muscle groups is flattened and reeled into a roll which contains upwards of one thousand or more feet of casing.
In use the roll of the flat fibrous casing is placed on a supply reel of a stuffing machine. Casing drawn from the supply reel is laced through a system of feed rolls, opened and then pulled over the discharge end of a stuffing horn. A food product (usually a whole boneless ham) is then pushed through the stuffing horn into the opened casing. In such an apparatus as disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3.919,739 and 4,534,084 the progression of the casing over the stuffing horn is in a direction opposite to the stuffing direction.
In this type of apparatus, the feed rolls are some distance (about six feet) from the discharge end of the stuffing horn. Operation of the stuffing machine requires that stuffing occur while there is still casing captured between the feed rolls. Accordingly, a new supply of casing is required before the trailing end of the casing leaves the feed rolls. This means that the last six feet or so of casing from each roll is not stuffed and is wasted.
After a supply roll is exhausted, it is customary to place a new roll of casing on the supply reel and again lace the casing through the system of feed rolls. This procedure of mounting a fresh roll of casing to the machine and then lacing the fibrous casing through the system of feed rolls is labor intensive, time consuming, and wastes the last six feet or so of casing from each roll. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to eliminate the need to lace the fibrous casing through the feed rolls each time a new supply of casing is required.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a packaged casing article wherein the fibrous casing is dispensed directly from its shipping carton thereby eliminating the need for mounting a roll ot fibrous casing to the supply reel of a stuffing machine.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a packaged casing article containing a relatively heavy load of fibrous casing including means to facilitate handling of the packaged article.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a packaged food casing article including means for effecting a splice between lengths of casing so that the trailing end of one casing length can be spliced to the leading end of a second casing length thereby eliminating the need for lacing casing through the system of feed rolls each time a fresh supply of casing is required.